Page 39 of Hungry Like A Dragon
The guy shooting video moved off to the side, widening the screen so that the entire living room was in view. Petra watched Rebecca’s cheeks darken with a blush. The young guy continued talking, and her expression morphed into concern while she shook her head and tightened her grasp on Sadie.
Petra blindly reached toward Noah, who grabbed her hand and twined his fingers with hers.
The guy on camera reached for the baby and Rebecca shouted something and tried to run toward the sliding glass door. The guy was on her before she could take more than five steps. He yelled over his shoulder, and the video became jumpy, hard to follow, as the person who was shooting it apparently moved in to help. It looked like the one who was behind the camera managed to extract Sadie from Rebecca’s arms while the young dragon covered Rebecca’s mouth and nose with a white cloth. Within a few seconds, Rebecca’s eyes fluttered closed and the dragon caught her as she started to fall to the floor.
And then the screen went black. Noah roared and released Petra’s hand as he charged at the woman. She murmured something, and he literally froze in the act of running.
“Hey,” Petra called out as the other two dragons hurried forward and grabbed Noah’s immobile arms.
Delilah waved her arm, murmured again, and Noah was released from the state of stasis, but the two dragons were prepared and held tightly to his arms as he flailed, attempting to break free of their grasp.
“Don’t bother trying to shift,” Delilah said, as calmly as if they were discussing the weather. “My shop is enchanted and won’t allow it.”
Noah stopped struggling and, breathing heavily, stared at her. “What did you do to my daughter?”
Gods above, his possessiveness over a child he’d only recently learned he had wassucha turn-on.
Can we focus?Petra’s dragon demanded, which was almost amusing considering she was the one who was usually the first to be distracted by Noah.
Delilah flapped her hand dismissively. “She’s fine. And she will remain that way, so long as you do what I want.”
“Which is what?” Noah’s voice was practically a guttural growl.
“How do you know about her?” Petra interrupted. “How do you know where I live?”
Delilah snorted. “Seriously? Say, which is it, anyway: Petra or Gigi?”
Petra looked over her shoulder at Carlos, who stood with his arms crossed, a menacing scowl contorting his features.
“Besides the fact that you arranged a date with one of my boys so you could grill him for information about me, the very next day, you showed up in my shop, acting as suspicious as a three-dollar bill, asking questions about my business. You think, after all that, that I wasn’t going to have you followed?”
Noah was wrong. Petra was lousy at this game. If only she hadn’t made that call last year, hadn’t contacted Ruby’s biological father. That had been the catalyst for the current state of her life. If she hadn’t reached out, she’d still be living in the Detroit suburbs, still angry that Gabe was reeve and she wasn’t, still fighting against everything that defined her family.
Okay, sure, her life hadn’t been a bed of roses before, but at least her daughter hadn’t been kidnapped by a dragon who ran a drug business and freaking practiced witchcraft.
But how? Delilah was right when she’d made her comment earlier—most dragons weren’t proficient at any magic other than their ability to shift forms. When they needed to protect something, they used brute strength and fire.
No wonder she was the flipping drug kingpin in this town.
“What do we need to do?” Noah demanded.
“Get the hell out of my town,” Delilah said.
